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The 10 golf courses that comprise Forest Preserve Golf guide players on a tee-to-green tour of the greater Chicagoland area, offering an insightful glimpse into the city’s culture and history. Burnham Woods, for example, takes its name from the legendary architect and urban planner Daniel Burnham, credited with designing the city’s structural layout and its manmade river of mustard. The Chick Evans course is named after the first player to win both the US Open and US Amateur, who would later go on to found the popular Evans Scholarship for caddies. With each course densely forested, golfers walk among the area’s natural wonders, as the Highland Woods course perches upon the highest point in Cook County and the Little Calumet River winds through the River Oaks course. With the exception of the 9-hole Billy Caldwell and Meadowlark courses, all are full-length 18-hole tracks.

Generation gaps call an evening-long truce to absorb the electric harmonies and magnetic energy of legendary rock bands Def Leppard and Heart. Def Leppard began its ascent to British hard-rock royalty in 1977, solidifying its reign with the 1987 multiplatinum album Hysteria and its iconic anthems "Love Bites" and "Armageddon It." Its latest tour stokes nostalgia and then pours sugar on it, with library classics giving way to singles such as "Undefeated" from the forthcoming Mirror Ball – Live & More album. Heart frontwomen Ann and Nancy Wilson add to the aural carnival with sisterly harmonics and guitar-wrangling routines developed over more than 30 years onstage. Revelry-inducing '70s hits "Barracuda" and "Crazy on You," along with soul-clutching '80s power ballads "Alone" and "What About Love," embody the decades whence they came while continuing to forcefully knock the socks and toenail polish off rapt concertgoers.

For more than 30 years, the ladies at Women's Workout & Wellness have cultivated a supportive environment in which women can focus on health, fitness, and wellness. Whether grooving through Zumba sessions, pushing weight sleds, performing lifts, or sweating, students find plenty of challenges in the center’s classes. Staffers gauge fitness level by analyzing BMI and testing cardio, strength, flexibility, and the ability to karate-chop airborne cucumbers. Experts also lend advice on nutritional intake and help clients set personalized goals. Before and after sweat sessions, ladies can suit up and cool down in the spacious showers and locker rooms at each location. Daycare is available at some locations for a nominal fee.

At Krush Skatepark, skateboarders of all ages fly over steeply sloped ramps and glide over rails in a large, hangar-style building designed by lifelong skateboarders. Visitors on inline skates, bikes, and scooters can also challenge the course, and guests can take group and individual lessons from experienced skaters on weekends. Kick-flipping visitors report to the onsite pro shop that teems with street apparel and safety gear, such as kneepads and altitude meters for early-model hoverboards.

If you've been bowling in Chicago, chances are pretty good you've been to a Chicagoland Bowling establishment. With member centers from the north to the south, the organization connects pin destroyers all over the city. The advantages of this network include tournaments that span the entire region, scholarship programs for talented youth bowlers, and a cornucopia of options for clowns who juggle bowling pins.

Ballroom, Latin, Swing and Fitness for all ages! Dancing made fun AND easy!
We can teach ANYONE!
No contracts or membership fees!
No partner or experience required.
We work with people with two left feet so they feel confident on the dance floor, and with top level competitors to give them that extra edge.

Live butcher demos in Wicker Park, Norwegian singer Ane Brun, and the Chicago Volunteer Expo, all on this weekend’s list of recommendations.
Ane Brun
Norwegian songstress cools down fiery hearts with a solo acoustic performance at Schubas
In the video for her 2011 song “Do You Remember,” Norwegian songstress Ane Brun interrupts the sleep of an elderly man, luring him into an unsettling dream from which escape seems unlikely. It’s a classic siren song, one that sums up the central tenet of Brun’s MO: no matter how sweet the tune or how soulful the performance, there’s always an enticing ice around the edges. That chilliness takes center stage during Brun’s latest tour, a solo affair that strips the singer of her often stormy rhythm section in favor of the unadorned longing of acoustic strings. Thankfully, she’s booked at a venue that can handle intimate performances: in the warm embrace of the back room at Schubas Tavern (3159 N. Southport Ave.), she’s almost guaranteed to melt some hearts before quickly refreezing them. (Saturday, 7 p.m. 21+. $14, buy tickets here)
“Wristcutters: A Love Story”
A tale of love, death, and Tom Waits during a Valentine-themed Movie Night at Pilsen’s Nitecap Coffee Bar
Zia thought suicide would solve all of his problems. Zia thought wrong. As the main character of 2006’s Wristcutters: A Love Story discovers, the afterlife is a lot like regular life, only crappier. When he hears that his ex-girlfriend has joined him in limbo, he joins his friend Eugene on a roadtrip to find her and maybe find some answers. Featuring the music of Gogol Bordello and an excellent appearance by Tom Waits, Wristcutters might be the perfect anti-valentine. We think it’ll be even better when viewed amid the small-batch coffees and inventive sandwiches of Pilsen’s Nitecap Coffee Bar (1738 W. 18th St.). The screening is a part of their ongoing Movie Night series, which turns the café into a movie house every Friday night. Click here for future films. (Friday, 7:30 p.m.–10 p.m. Admission is free with purchase from the menu)
Eat Your Heart Out
Wicker Park butcher shop brings out the meaty side of Valentine’s Day with live butcher demonstrations
Valentine’s Day is today, but if the organizers of Eat Your Heart Out have any say in the matter, the lovey-dovey spirit will extend long into the weekend. The boisterous bash at The Chop Shop (2033 W. North Ave.) brings together the worlds of food, music, and comedy, but the meat’s the main draw—provided by Slagel Family Farm, it takes center stage during demos by four Chicago butchers. Of course, you can eat it, too. Throughout the night, guests can grab tastes of Amish lamb sausage, pasture pulled-pork sliders, and more. Between bites, the butchers cede the stage to more traditional performers, including local garage rockers White Mystery and Blasted Diplomats and comedians Tommy Mac, Liza Treyger, and Michael Timlin. (Saturday, 6 p.m. to midnight. $50; buy tickets here)
Chicago Volunteer Expo
Representatives from more than 80 Chicago nonprofits help would-be volunteers get involved at this second annual recruitment expo
Until Mayor Rahm Emanuel gets around to beheading the frost wyrm that’s taken up residence in Lake Michigan, chances are you’re going to need a good excuse to brave the cold. On Sunday, find a way to keep yourself occupied for a good cause at the second annual Chicago Volunteer Expo. Representatives from more than 80 area organizations will set up shop at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (2430 N. Cannon Dr.), bringing with them information on how to make a positive impact on the communities around you. Participating do-gooders include literacy org 826CHI, the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, the Chicago Women's Health Center, and many, many more. Attendance comes with an added thank-you: expo guests also get free same-day admission to the museum. (Sunday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Admission is free)
4Play Sex in a Series
Tune into the sexy side of sitcoms with this play presented as a series of steamy episodes
From the highest hijinks of Three’s Company to the lowest lowbrow joke of Two and a Half Men, sitcoms have a proud history of playing off of sexual tension. Inspired by both content and format, the theatricals of New York’s trip. created 4Play Sex in a Series. Told over the course of four 22-minute acts—the standard length of a sitcom, minus commercials—the play explores the erotic ins and outs of the dinner party of our collective (confused and not terribly pious) dreams. Originally staged in New York in 2004, the play makes its Midwestern premiere this weekend at The Den Theatre (1333 N. Milwaukee Ave.). In addition to single tickets, the theater is also offering a special Valentine’s Day package, which includes admission for two and a “free champagne surprise package.” (Friday–Sunday, 10 p.m. The show runs through Saturday, March 15. $20; buy tickets here)
Photo provided by Headstomp Productions

During his March appearance on Michael Feldman’s Whad’ya Know? radio show, Illinois Poet Laureate Kevin Stein showed just how economical he can be with language. When asked how it feels to fill the shoes of former laureates Carl Sandburg and Gwendolyn Brooks, he summed up his feelings in one word: “Daunting.”
Now in his 10th year as state poet laureate and his 30th year as an English professor at Bradley University, Stein has little left to prove. Still, he’s doing all he can to bring more people into poetry’s fold. While preparing for his spring appearance schedule, he shared with us his thoughts on the changing seasons, his legacy, and the value of not writing for a while.
GROUPON: It seems like spring is finally here. What poems helped get you through this long winter?
KEVIN STEIN: One that I love—sort of an end-of-winter thing that gives one hope—is William Carlos Williams's wonderful "Spring and All," which is what we must think of! You know, that's the one that starts with "By the road to the contagious hospital," and the speaker's looking out and just seeing broken bottles and glass and disease, and in the midst of that, he sees these little green shoots coming up. That's the one I like to keep in mind—that this too shall pass, that there will be a spring, there will be some sort of rebirth, even an interior one.
G: Living in Central Illinois, though, the winter, especially this last one, occupies a pretty large chunk of the calendar. Does that make its way into your writing?
KS: More and more it does. My wife and I have had a place in Breckenridge, Colorado, since the '90s, so we have been spending more time there.
In my last collection, there's a poem about my favorite ski lift at Breckenridge. I put myself in the lift line and look around to see what I see. … Toward the end of the 10-mile range there's Father Dyer Peak. He was an old-time itinerant preacher who was well-known in the area. There's also Mount Helen. Mount Helen and Father Dyer Peak appear to be kind of holding hands. I like to think of them that way.
Back home, we live in a rural area, and one of our neighbors' 600 acres of woods are around and beside us. So I wrote a poem about putting seed out for the birds in the snow, and then putting birdseed in my snowy bootprints, and watching the birds gather there, and poke their heads up and down and disappear.
G: Now that the weather’s turned a little warmer, where will you be heading for some springtime inspiration?
KS: My favorite spring location is a spot in my good farmer neighbor's woods as it runs along Kickapoo Creek south of Dunlap. There's a wonderful, gloriously unexpected spread of bluebells rolling under the tree canopy and lipping the creek bed. It lifts the heart after so much winter white to see this sea of blue.
G: You recently celebrated 10 years as poet laureate. Where has that decade gone?
KS: When one is really absorbed by something, time and distance evaporate, and that has certainly been the case for me. I didn't realize that I was coming to that kind of a marker until someone proposed [last December’s] AP article. A decade, Jesus! It has gone fast. It changed how I think about poetry, what it can do, what it should do, who it speaks to—all those things.
G: How have those changes manifested themselves? What has surprised you?
KS: The first thing has to do with the human factor. I've had the opportunity to talk about poetry and help make poems with everyone from kindergarteners to geriatrics in nursing homes, and I never would have had that opportunity. Seeing these little kids with poems in their back pockets was an astonishing and revelatory moment … .
The other thing is that I was reacquainted with poetry's public function. We fools who fall for poetry think of it as something to be read alone with a glass of wine or a cup of tea or whatever, and indeed it is. But people expect and accept poetry in a public venue, as a political and social marker.
G: I’m always struck that presidential Inaugurations still feature an official poet. Something about it is still reserved for poetry. There’s no official inaugural novelists.
KS: Absolutely so. In my lifetime, [Robert] Frost’s performance at Kennedy’s inauguration, where the sun was so bright that he couldn’t read the poem and so he spoke another of his from memory, has reverberated across the years.
G: Ten years in, what’s left to do as laureate? What do you still hope to accomplish?
KS: When I set out, I think I set out not knowing what I was up to. Along the way we started these websites, and I was able to cosponsor a youth poetry competition and an emerging poetry competition. I've read at school libraries, public libraries, university libraries, and whenever I do that, I give money out of my pocket to buy books of Illinois poetry. All of those things still give me a lot of pleasure. … I want to sustain the efforts that I have underway. I want to be one of those folks who doesn't let something drop.
Catch Kevin Stein as a guest on WGN Radio’s After Hours with Rick Kogan on Sunday, April 13, at 9 p.m. Stein’s upcoming Chicagoland events include a visit to Oak Park’s Ernest Hemingway Foundation on Saturday, April 26, and a stop at the Jo-Anne Hirshfield Memorial Poetry Awards Ceremony at the Evanston Public Library on Sunday, May 4.
Photo provided by Kevin Stein